Rishon mayor defeated after 25 years; incumbent mayor Yona Yahav wins in Haifa, Buskila in Sderot.
By JPOST.COM STAFFYona Yahav 88 224(photo credit: Courtesy )
A new municipal landscape emerged on Wednesday morning after the previous day's local elections.
In Ashdod, Yehiel Lasri beat incumbent mayor, Tvi Tzilker, who has held the post for the last 33 years, by 56.1% to 44.9%.
In Rishon Lezion, Meir Nitzan, the incumbent mayor who had served the city for 25 years, was ousted, losing by five percentage points to his challenger. Nitzan won 47.7 percent of the votes, while Dov Tzur got 52.3%.
In Haifa, incumbent mayor Yona Yahav was the winner, beating Ya'acov Borovsky by a margin of just under 10 percent.
Yahav garnered 46.51 percent of the vote, and Borovsky received 37.34%.
In Bat Yam, Shlomo Lehiyani (86.26%) won a landslide victory against his rival Eli Yariv (13.74%), while in Ra'anana, Nahum Hofri was the victor, with 71% of the vote.
In Netanya, incumbent Miriam Feierberg, who famously had a run-in with alleged mobster Francois Abutbul at a city police station in September, was the winner, with 81% of the vote.
Former Sderot mayor David Buskila won the mayoral election in the Kassam-ravaged city, receiving 45 percent of the vote.
"My romance with Sderot is not over," he told Israel Radio on Wednesday morning, dedicating his victory to his children.
In Beersheva, 38-year-old Rubik Danilovitz defeated Mayor Yaakov Turner by a 30-percent margin. Danilovitz received 60.4% of the vote and Turner 30%.
Speaking to Channel 2 with his voice breaking early Wednesday morning, Danilovitz said only that he was "very happy" with the results.
In Modi'in, Haim Bibas, who ran on a platform of job creation and development, garnered the 40% of votes needed to avoid a run-off, with 90% of the ballots counted. In second place was Amnon Merhav, who by 7:00 a.m. had won 34% of the votes.
